USAWA

John’s series of articles on the principles of Longstrength applies to how he used them to “warm up”. Dr. Schwartz developed his entire training system behind these principles, with warmups just being a small part of it.

The older I get the more warming up I need. I think most lifters do some type of warmups that involve non-barbell movements. Before my heavy days, I like to get to the gym 30 minutes prior to my scheduled workout time just to get loosened up and prepared for my training. I don’t consider doing this as part of my training. Many of the things I do is what John is going to be talking about in his article on Longstrength. So, I don’t consider this as “new information”, but rather a more indepth evaluation and discussion of the importance of it. A big part of Longstrength is the use of heavyhands, which Ben mentioned, and is a topic in itself.

This article by John was published in Hardgainer close to 20 years ago, which would put John at the time about the same age as I am now. In discussing training with John, it is unbelievable how much our training ideas are the same and how we reached the same belief independently. Also, your ideas on training evolve as you age just the same as how your body changes in regard to lifting as you age. A forty year old needs to train different than a 20 year old, and a 60 year old needs to train different than a 40 year old. A constant challenge in our unending battle with the weights!! Al